Autofeed screwdrivers are known for driving collated screws. For example, one known autofeed screwdriver for collated screws is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,780 to Habermehl, issued Sep. 24, 2002, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In this patent to Habermehl, a screwstrip comprising a plurality of screws held in spaced relation on a plastic strap are incrementally fed through a guideway into a slide body which is mounted for sliding relative to a housing carrying a rotating drive shaft with a bit for engaging a screw. The slide body has a nose portion for engagement with a work surface. A user engages the nose portion with a workpiece and urges the screwdriving tool forwardly into the workpiece to retract the slide body within the housing and drive a screw coaxially aligned with the driveshaft into a workpiece after which a user discontinues applying forwardly directed forces to the tool. In the cycle of operation of applying forces to the tool to drive each successive screw and then releasing such forces, the slide body is moved reciprocally inwardly and outwardly in the housing which relative movement advances each successive screw in the screwstrip into a position in alignment with the driver shaft for driving into the workpiece.
Various different types of screwstrips are known including screwstrips as disclosed in the above-noted U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,780 and screwstrips of the type disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,494,322 to Habermehl et al, issued Dec. 17, 2002 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,783,001 to Wollner, issued Oct. 31, 2004.
Such screwstrips have the common features that they include a plurality of screws arranged in a generally side-by-side relation which are held together by a strap which preferably comprises a plastic material but may be formed from various other materials including paper, metal and other materials alone or in combinations. In the screwstrips disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,453,780 and 6,494,322 which are referred to herein as “upright strap” screwstraps, these straps holding the screws are elongate not only between the screws but also in a direction parallel the axis of the screws. In contrast, in the screwstrip of the type taught by the patent to Wollner which are referred to herein as “flat tape” screwstrips, the strap is elongate between the screws and in a direction normal the axis of the screws.
Various metal connectors are known for connecting of wide range of wood products with holes pre-formed in the connectors and through which screws are to be passed to secure the connectors to wood surfaces which they overlay. Such connectors are well known and include hangers for joints and rafters, joint ties, hurricane ties, framing anchors, staircase angles, deck post ties and the like. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,634 to Pryor issued Sep. 24, 2002 illustrates a strap adapted to be secured to the face of a wood member via a plurality of threaded fasteners which are to pass through suitably sized holes in the strap.
The inventor of this application has appreciated a disadvantage which arises with previously known autofeed screwdrivers is that it is difficult to drive a screw into a precise point within a workpiece. For example, the applicant has appreciated that it is difficult with non-autofeed screwdrivers to drive screws accurately through the center of openings in known connection brackets which are sized to closely receive the screw.
The applicant has appreciated a further disadvantage that autofeed screwdrivers do not provide a mechanism whereby a screw to be driven protrudes forwardly from the tool prior to activation of the tool in a manner which permits a bit of a screw to be driven to be placed accurately at the desired location as, for example, centered in the opening through a connection strap.